Time Based Arts says “it’s been a great year consolidating the growth of the company.” Colourist Simone Grattarola now works out of TBA and that’s “introduced long form work into the building with War and Peace and Peaky Blinders” two examples.

“A year of growth and expansion,” says Axis “Revenues are up and we have opened in London.” It has also expanded “into longer format work for clients such as Netflix and Amazon and we’re getting a great mix of vfx work for our visual effects studio.”

Storm HD reckons that 2016 has so far been “a very strong year with lots of good quality work around. We’ve had to turn away multiple enquiries because we have been at capacity.”
The Facility, which focuses almost exclusively on broadcast (with some corporate) also reports that it has added Forscene editing to the mix “which has led to larger series work for us” and has also added “LTO 6 for back up of clients rushes.”
It also points out that clients “seem too have now embraced AS11 file delivery but there is still a bit of nervousness about it.”
Storm HD also identifies real opportunities in the growth of 4K. “4k post is really taking off and we are getting more and more enquiries for this,” it says.
On the downside, Storm HD, which has its premises in Covent Garden’s Neal’s Yard, is feeling the pinch of increasing rents in fashionable London districts calling landlords’ rental rates a “significant threat” to the industry in general. It also sees “bigger post houses becoming even bigger” and the growth of the super facility as a problem for smaller players.

Vfx specialist Blue Bolt says “it’s been a steady year so far,” with “no huge peaks or dips.” But that could soon change. “It’s been similar to 2015, the later part of 2015 went slightly crazy so we’re waiting to see what happens later this year.”
Blue Bolt has managed to secure work on some of the most high profile and high end TV dramas of the past 12 months. It’s continued its work on hit show Peaky Blinders, it conjured up Russian and Napoleonic armies for the battle scenes in th BBC’s adaptation of Tolstoy’s War and Peace and created scenes for The Night Manager including Richard Roper’s demonstration of his armaments for his crooked buyers.
There have been Bafta Craft Award nominations for its work on The Last Kingdom ands well as AEAF nominations for The Last Kingdom, The Night Manager and War and Peace.
In terms of growth, Blue Bolt says it plans on “staying the same size. It works for us and clients get the personal approach on every project that comes into BlueBolt, that is vital for us.” Blue Bolt complains that other vfx houses are “undercutting to a pointless cost so no-one wins” but is positive when it comes to the big OTT providers’ entrance into the market: “With Netflix and Amazon wanting more content, more exciting projects are appearing on the horizon.”

There has been an “increasing amount of work in all sectors,” says Jellyfish. It has developed the film and animation side of the business and will soon open a new building in Oval to complement its two existing homes in Soho and Brixton.